Thursday 3 August 2017

No 12076, Thursday 03 Aug 2017, Incognito


... and Incognito's touring Singapore!

ACROSS
7   Take tea with model and talk (4) CHAT {CHA}{T}
8   Medico with a master's degree is hugged by non-drinker and playwright (9) DRAMATIST {DR}{MA}{T{IS}T}
10 Couples from India dislike golden colour (6) INDIGO {INdia}{DIs...e}{GOl..n}
11 Reconstructed landing field after cancelling winding lane? That's no big deal! (8) FIDDLING {lanDING+FIeLD}*
12 Zero probability? Certainly not! (2,6) NO CHANCE {NO} {CHANCE}
14 Alter perm or dress (6) ROMPER*
16 Despatched ring to South American island (7) SENTOSA {SENT}{O}{SA}
18 West Germanic language travelling earthlings use artlessly (7) ENGLISH EartHLINGS*
21 Maybe lost by European native initially or taken illegally (6) STOLEN {LOST*}{Eu...n}{Na...e}
23 A dash to burial places results in scrambles (8) ENCRYPTS {EN}{CRYPTS}
25 Majestic e-mail rip-off (8) IMPERIAL*
27 Skilful old partner's saucy (6) EXPERT {EX}{PERT}
29 Lewd louse excitedly hugs tutor after rejecting tea (9) LECHEROUS {teaCHER} in {LOUSE}*
30 The Greatest kind of soil (4) CLAY [DD]

DOWN
1   Skeletal part radiated light around Irish nurse's body initially (8) SHINBONE {SH{Ir..h}{Nu..e}{Body}ONE}
2   Case existing in perpetuity (4) ETUI [T]
3   Be next to announcement and enlist (6) ADJOIN {AD}{JOIN}
4   Royal Air Force flies dropping setter's lotteries (7) RAFFLES {RAF}{FLiES}
5   Male takes damaged dinar for orange (8) MANDARIN {MAN}{DINAR*}
6   Woman with one lira left testament (4) WILL {W}{1}{L}{L}
9   Worried about dancing teens (5) TENSE*
13 Popular Semitic god's place of residence for tourists (5) HOTEL {HOT}{EL}
15 Before June — including the French language (5) MALAY {MA{LA}Y}
17 Guard posted silly line (8) SENTINEL {SENT}{LINE*}
19 Doctor Sara’s duty does not include opening of surgery on weekend (8) SATURDAY {SARAs+DUTY}*
20 Mythical creature's egg is possessed by magician (7) MERLION {MERLI{O}N}
22 South Indian language used by junta/military (5) TAMIL [T]
24 Stop around right line at court (6) CREASE {C{R}EASE}
26 Draw fish without head (4) ETCH ?ETCH Anno pending See comments
28 Our little neighbour has cold compress (4) PACK {PA{C}K}

GRID

47 comments:

  1. Off topic but not off the forum
    Yesterday after I saw LAEVULOSE as a grid entry, I threw in PORIVILANGAI URUNDAI as a 'word' to clue.
    I thank the members who accepted the challenge.
    While foreign (e.g., French) terms may be somewhat pliable in wordplay, most Indian terms will be hard nuts to crack. The components derived by beaking up may not yield themselves for fair treatment.
    To get a meaningful surface reading might be a big problem.
    Added to this is the fact that in India there are so many languages that the same word may have different inflections in different languages.
    For example, today, alongside the crossword there is the word 'kripa' screaming at you in the 'Faith' column. This is Sanskrit. In Tamil, we would say 'kripai'.
    Of the submissions, Satyen Nabar's clue
    One very pure A-one grain ladoo with primarily unknown nutritious ingredients! Fantastic, oddly not over-sweet (12, 7)

    (I + V + PURE + A + I + GRAIN LADOO + U + N + I)* - OE; Defn = sweet.

    is a runaway success.
    He has managed to gel into wordplay the ingredients and the shape of the sweet, with a glance at the implied meaning of the name mentioned by Shrikanth.
    The clue is indeed long but here we don't have a word-limit. Besides, nothing in the clue is extraneous.
    Congrats, Satyen.
    I wanted to try a clue myself but I don't think I can better Satyen's effort.
    Now I am going in search of the sweet. I may have eaten it - or perhaps tried to eat the difficult-to-break sweet - when I was a boy when in our grandmothers' days such things were home-made. Now it has to be 'store-bought'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately we don't get it in stores in Bangalore. Even the ones we get in my hometown in Kerala nowadays, are not as hard as the ones that my grandmother used to make. I remember as kids at times I used to break it with a hammer.

      Delete
    2. ... and I forgot. Congrats Doc. You need to eat one of them now

      Delete
    3. Thanks Chaturvasi Sir and Col! It was great fun! Thanks for the challenge Sir... Definitely want to taste the sweet. I can bring my surgical hammer:)

      Delete
  2. Another OT

    Msg from Bhavan

    We have some company for Nina. Mum and newbie both doing well.

    His name is about right. New invention, on reflection (4)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately I cannot add the photo, in the comments section, that came with the above msg.

      Delete
    2. Congrats Bhavan! God bless the new arrival

      Delete
    3. I forgot to add the date which was Monday 31 July

      Delete
    4. Congratulations, Bhavan, Amudha and Nina!

      Delete
    5. Thanks all for the wishes.

      Satyen that name clue has one def but two wordplays, so might have thrown you off.

      Delete
    6. NIEL. Your hint gave it away.

      Delete
    7. Ah!Dr. beating me to it..the second wp is reversal of lien

      Delete
    8. So Nina & Neil..two four letter words starting from N for the juniors. Great!

      Delete
    9. So we have an explorer- Neil Armstrong!

      Delete
  3. 26DN I think fish here meant to be fetch.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 26d If we behead PERCH, ROACH, TENCH, WITCH (all of which come under 'fish'), we still don't get ETCH.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The closest fish I found was HECHT which would then need an Anagram Indicator after deleting the head

      Delete
  5. KRK: How do you get the deletion fodder FETCH?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If the answer is to be taken as FETCH without head should give ETCH, right?

      Delete
  6. Ketch is a fishing vessel derived from "to catch". http://www.morewords.com/word/ketch/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Apologies! In my notes, I have Ketch, which is certainly not a fish!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Msg from Incognito who is literally so as he has no net

    Quote

    Apologies! In my notes. I find kETCH, which is certainly not a fish!

    Unquote

    ReplyDelete
  9. If it is nonet, he will sing along with eight others.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Again OT

    Just watched the movie PSYCHO again. Saw it sometime in 65. The first murder scene still gives me the heebie-jeebies at times when I am in a bathroom which has a shower curtain.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. +1 Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates still gives the shivers

      Delete
  11. Replies
    1. Thanks, Mona. There are some other theme words too, but that's based on information not in public domain, so cannot disclose here

      Delete
  12. 17D. It is a DD clue? Just curious to know if the clue would work this way too: Zero probability? Yes!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Congrats and Best Wishesto Mrs. & Mr. Bhavan.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Col.,
    Why don't you put up the picture in the family section? She is now part of the family.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you Kishore. Had to go out. was able to solve quickly on line before that. I was wondering if the theme might be languages.
    Dr. Satyan,
    Congratulations. News may be sweeter than Porivilangai urundai ( I found it difficult even to spell it, I hope I am right.)

    ReplyDelete
  16. I still feel that the spelling is PORU-L--VILANGA_URUNDAI. Unfortunately, none of the granmas who can make this cannon ball are alive today. Will any Tamil Pulavar clarify? What does the Google grandma say ? or the Pedia thatha ?

    Incognito's clues are as simple as his anonymity is complicated.

    Congrats to Mr & Mes Bhavan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/How-to-make...Porivilangai-urundai/article15921129.ece

      Delete
  17. Thanks. I'm still curious to know the etymology of this word please. CV: You've set the BALL rolling !!

    ReplyDelete

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